Adjusting mechanism



W. J. BRENNAN ADJUSTING MECHANISM Dec. 1,520,692

Filed Marsh 11. 1918 Patented Dec. 3G, i24.

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WILLIAIE J. BRENNAN, OF SWAMPSOOTT, MASSAGE USIETTS, ASSIGNOR TO UNITED SHOE MACHINERY CORI GRATION, CF EATER-SON, NEW JERSEY, A GORPOEATIC-N OF NEW JERSEY.

ADJUSTING MECHANISM.

Application filed. March 11, 1918. Serial No. 221,729.

[0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, lViLnrAM J. BREN- NAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Swampscott, in the county of Essex and State of lifassachusetts have invented certain Improvements in Adjustinglvlechanisms, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like reference characters on the drawings indicatinglike parts in the several figures.

This invention relates to a device for controlling the movement of an adjusting member and is herein illustrated as embodied in a device suitable for use with a machine for rolling leather.

In a leather rolling machine having pressure rolls between which the leather is fed it is customary to adjust the mechanism by which one roll is moved toward the other so as to predeterminethe effectivedistance between the rolls. This is done to provide for different thicknesses of leather or to permit different amounts of pressure to be applied to pieces ofleather of the same thickness. After this adjustment has been made for a given run of pieces it should be maintained while the pieces are passing through the machine. In other words, after the mechanism has been adjusted to give the required distance between the rolls it should remain set in that position. Hitherto a. great deal. of difficulty has been experienced because the mechanism is not held set. Machines of this type exert a. heavy pressure upon the leather, and there is considerable jarring action present due to irregularities in the thickness of the leather. The result has frequently been that the force exerted upon the rolls by the passage of the leather and the consequent jarring of the machine has, so to speak, reversed the adjusting mechanism and thereby disturbed the setting of the mechanism by which the extent of the approach of the rolls toward'each other is controlled.

According to one feature of the invention there is provided a novel adjusting mechanism for a machine-part which is locked in adjusted position, so that force applied to the machine-part cannot reverse or otherwise disturb it, and is nevertheless capable of being operated at any time to change the adjustment of the part. Conveniently the adjusting member may be a rotatable shaft having'fast thereto a sup port for a locking member in the form of a pivoted lever which is normally operative to lock the shaft in adjusted position by engagement with a fixed rack, a hand-wheel being provided movement of which first renders the locking means inoperative and then turns the adjusting shaft to adjust the machine-part, the construction being such that release of the wheel permits the locking means to resume its normal, operative position.

This and other features of the invention, including certain details of construction and combinations of parts, will be described as embodied in an illustrative device and pointed out in the appended claims.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings,

Fig. 1 is an end elevation of a device in which the present invention is embodied;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation, partly in sec tion, and

Fig. 3 is a plan.

A part of the frame of aleather rolling machine is indicated at 5, and in a suitable bearing in this part is rotatably mounted an adjusting shaft 7, having an enlarged portion 17, which serves as a bearing for an actuator or operating member in the form of a hand wheel 9, and a reduced end portion 117 to which is pinned at 11 a support 13 for a locking member 19, herein shown as a lever pivoted at 21 between vertical ears formed on the support. The right-hand end of the lever 19, as viewed in Fig. 2, is provided with teethv 'which are adapted to engage the teeth of a circular rack 23 fastened to the frame of the machine by a set screw .25. A spring-pressed plunger 27 engages the left-hand end of the lever and normally holds the teeth on the other end of the lever in engagement with the rack, as shown in the figures. As long as the parts are in their normal position, as shown, the adjusting shaft is securely locked; and, before it can be turned the lever 19 must be raised into inoperative position. i

Rotatable on a pin 29 carried by the lever 19 is a small roll 31 which runs on a cam track formed on an arm 33, said arm being fastened by screws 35 to the hub of the hand-wheel 9. The cam track has a low point at its center (see Fig. 1) and at each side of the center a rising incline which terminates in a short, horizontal surface. At the upper corners of the arm 33 are two lugs 133. If now, the hand-wheel 9 is turned, the first effect will be to cause the roll 31 to ride up one of the inclines thereby disengaging the teeth of the lever from those of the rack. As soon as this has been accomplished, the corresponding lug 133 engages one side of the support 13 and transmits the angular movement of j the wheel to the adjusting shaft 7. After (ill the wheel has been released, the springpressed plunger 27 causes the roll to ride down the incline, the wheel 9 turning slightly as this takes place, whereupon the teeth of the locking member 19 engage the rack 23 and hold the shaft 7 in adjusted position. The parts of the locking and releasing mechanism have been described for convenience as occupying the positions shown. in the drawings, in which positions such terms as upper and lower are applicable; but it should be noted that in use the arm 33, which is shown as upright, may occupy various angular positions, and that the same is true of all the parts which move angularly when the shaft 7 is adjusted.

As has been explained, the drawings show part of the frame of a rolling machine. In such machines the throw of the cams or levers which determine how near the rolls shall approach to each other is adjusted through mechanism operated by a chain 41, said chain running around a sprocket 43 which is fast to one end of the adjusting shaft 7. Inasmuch as the sprocket 43 or the chain 41 may be considered as the machine-part which is adjusted it has been considered unnecessary to show the rolls of the machine and all of the connecting mechanism.

Although the invention has been set forth as embodied in a particular device, it should be understood that the invention is not limited in the scope of its application to the particular device which has been shown and described.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire 'to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A device of the class described having, in combination, an adjusting member capable of being moved in two directions, a locking member carried by the adjusting the rack, a hand-wheel loose on the shaft,

and a member rigid with the wheel and adapted, when the wheel is turned, first to disengage the lever from the rack and then to turn the shaft.

3. A device of the class described, having in combination, a shaft capable of turning in two directions, a lever mounted on the shaft and rotatable therewith, a member normally in engagement with the lever to lock it and thereby the shaft from rotation in either direction, a manually operated member loose on the shaft, and means rotatable with the member for unlocking the lever and for rotating the shaft through the lever.

' 4-. A device of the class described, having, in combination, a rotatable adjusting shaft, a support carried thereby, a locking member carried by the support, a handwheel loose on the shaft, and a cam rigid with the wheel and adapted when the wheel is turned in either direction to engage the locking member and move it in two directions, first away from the shaft and then in unison with the shaft.

5. A device of the class described, having, in combination, a rotary adjusting shaft, a support fast thereto, a locking member mounted on the support and movable with respect thereto into operative and inoperative positions, an operating member, and an arm rigid therewith and having a cam surface comprising a depressed middle portion with which the locking member normally co-acts and two inclined portions adapted, when the operating member is moved in either direction to render the locking member inoperative, said arm being provided with other means for engaging the support to move it in unison with the shaft during the adjusting operation.

6. A device of the class described having, in combination, an adjusting member capable of being moved in two directions, a single locking member pivotally mounted on said adjusting member and arranged to hold the adjusting member from movement in either direction, an operating member mounted on the adjusting member for limited angular movement, and means for rendering the locking member inoperative and for moving the adjusting member when the operating member is manipulated.

7. A device of the class described, having, in combination a shaft capable of turning in two directions, a support carried by the shaft, a locking member carried by the support, a fixed rack for engagement With the locking member to lock the shaft in position, and an operating member mounted on the shaft between the support and the rack for disengaging the locking member from the rack and for rotating the shaft.

name to this specification.

WILLIAM J. BRENNAN. 

